Am I crazy for thinking about ditching the jotul F600 for a Buck 91. Does anyone have experience between the two? My house is not a easy floor plan to heat. Lots of door headers a narrow steep stair case and high ceilings up stairs. Ive tried every fan method in the book to help circulate heat and I cant get it done from the F600. I have one option, I can set up a insert in my den via a big fireplace. This may give me a better shot at heat distribution. Performance wise can anyone compare the Buck 91 and the Jotul F600. I personally have been disappointed in the F600. Very finicky to get consistent burns and has no where near the burn times I was looking for. I think a big cat stove may be more suitable for my needs.
Am I crazy
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Won't fix poor circulation with more heat. You'll likely just have one hotter room...
I understand that moving the heat sorce to a alternative location would give me a better chance at having better circulation but it would have to be a insert as i said.
Possibly, but you'll still have all the headers and a narrow staircase. It's a lot of hassle and expense for a "well, maybe it will work". Test your theory with a plug in radiant heat source (or two, or three) to simulate the insert and see how well the heat distributes.
Do you have cold air returns upstairs? Just giving the cold air somewhere to go down without fighting the warm air coming up the staircase could be beneficial.
Do you have cold air returns upstairs? Just giving the cold air somewhere to go down without fighting the warm air coming up the staircase could be beneficial.
Will most certainly place fusible links in for that reason. The only draw back i can see is the returns cooling the rooms at which they enter on the first floor. Im wondering if i would be better off putting a bigger vent from my dinning room where my stove is up into my bedroom maybe then the stairs would want to become the return.
EbS-P
Minister of Fire
Have you considered a mini split upstairs? Just a thought. Adding a second stove to run just doubles the work. I added a second wood burner and really only want to burn one at a time.
Do you have a damper on the F600? How tall is the chimney?
Yes I have a damper on it interior chimney with a 6 inch stainless liner it is 25 ft tall. I added the damper this season to help out with trying to get some longer burn times. By minni split you mean the wall mounted electric heat? If i moved stove locations and got another setup i would only keep one.
weatherguy
Minister of Fire
It's safe if you install a fire damper, that's what I did and the vent makes a world of difference distributing heat.
What vent set up did you go with that had a fire damper ? I think this may be the way to go and hopefully i can figure somthing put to squeeze some longers burns from the f600
D. Hermit
Feeling the Heat
You should be able to get 10-12 hour burns with that F-600. That stove is over 80k btu. Are you using good seasoned wood, and when is the last time you performed maintance on the stove? Gaskets for doors and glass, top plates gaskets? Do the secondary air tubes need to be re cemented and cemented back in? I would recommend some dollar bill and flashlight tests to see if you can make that 600 work. Thats a great solid stove.
Im no where near 10 at 5 hours im down to coals enough for a easy relight but not enough to throw much heat. Front doors, glass, ash pan and side load door all were replaced the start of this heating season in October. Blanket above top baffle plates has been replaced once since ive had the stove maybe 3 years ago. Top baffle plates are in nice shape. I do have a few loose secondary tubes. I believe two i can pack this stove to the gun rails and she eats it up in 5 hours. Oak, locus, and ash with the occasional maple split. I dont have a problem getting the stove going i also hear or see no visual moisture leaving the wood while lighting a new load.
D. Hermit
Feeling the Heat
You have something wrong with the stove. Where did you get the gaskets and what size did you use for the doors/glass and ash pan? Incorrect gasket sizes can absolutely cause much shorter burn times.
D. Hermit
Feeling the Heat
Correct gaskets for doors are 3/8” low density, right door, side door and left door, but the center strip of the left door gets 1/4 low density. And the glass is all 1/4 low density. And ash pan is also 1/4 low density.
Kit came right from jotul. I followed the chart for the F600 which shows what gaskets where. Everything was dollar bill tested minus the glass of course.
How does the fire act? Can you get it to strong secondaries with lazy primaries? How tight do you pack it and how big are the splits? Maybe the damper needs to be closed more? 25' is a lot of chimney...
D. Hermit
Feeling the Heat
Yea my next thing to check after that would be top plate gasket, this gasket will go if the stove is over fired enough. And the burn tubes you said were loose, Im guessing there is other stuff going on in there. You have a very solid stove and depending on your budget or skill set, I would think about getting yours rebuilt.
What temps are you running the stove at? Pipe and stove top? How soon are you shutting the air back and how far?
I can run the stove at 550 on the back left corner no problem but ive never seen temps over that on the corners. As for the air it really seems to have a lot of velocity to me . I can run with the air closed and start pulling back on the pipe damper to get that lazy flame. I need to be pretty far closed on the pipe to get it like that. Ive always felt that i had a over draft issue just by how vigorously the flames moved around thats why I went with a pipe damper it did seem to help but still no where near the burn times or temps ive seen others get. As for the splits i have all different sizes. I try to mix it up so i can get some bigger stuff in the box and fill the gaps with smaller stuff. I have even tried dialing in the stove starting on a reload with the damper 3/4 closed and dialing in the primary air to get it looking right and still the same burn time. Im a union welder by trade so skill level wise im up for what ever needs to be checked or done. Thanks for all of the help i appreciate you guys helping out
What pipe temps are you running? Stove top temps only tell a small part of the story. What species of wood are you using?
stoveliker
Minister of Fire
I have a register in the floor, a fused link damper, a duct down to the floor of the basement (where stove is), then an inline fan. This fan sucks the coldest air from the living room floor and pipes it down to the floor of the basement. The stove heats the air in the basement up, and the hottest air is at the top. This flies up thru the stairs back to the living room.
So 1. I move the coldest air available. 2. I don't mix that air with the hottest air in the stove room (basement) but keep that air stratified so that 3. The hottest air moves up the stairs. And 4. The fan is far from the wood floor of the living room on the concrete basement floor, and one can't hear anything in the living room despite significant airflow.
My basement is (at the ceiling) about 8-10 F hotter than my living room (which is at 67-69 F).
teutonicking
Feeling the Heat
Let me know if you want to get rid of your F600. I might be interested in it depending on condition.
I dont have a thermometer in the pipe i need to out one in just haven't gotten to it. And I burn mostly oak locus and ash.
Pipe temps tell you much more than stove temps. But I like having both. I have a feeling you are wasting lots of heat up the chimney. You may even need a second damper but without pipe temps it's hard to say
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